Interesting facts about Charles Dickens

#1. No matter where he lay, Dickens always made sure to sleep with his head pointing north as he believed it improved his writing.

#2. Dickens is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing no less than 247 new words and usages into the language including “butter-fingers”, “fluffiness” and the verb “to manslaughter”.

 #3. He was very fond of nicknames and imbued all of his children with them such as “Chickenstalker” and “Skittles”. 

#4. Dickens was an amateur magician, very afraid of bats and an insomniac.

#5. After having ten children together, Charles Dickens and Catherine Hogarth decide they weren’t right for each other, and separated in 1858 (she was becoming 'fat and boring'). He then met a nubile young actress named Ellen Ternan who was the same age as his younger daughter, Kate.

#6. In Tale of Two Cities, he mentions “Husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil,” which is the earliest reference to potato chips.

#7. He started work aged 12 after his father was imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea Prison.

#8. In 1836 Charles Dickens married Catherine Hogarth. She was the daughter of his editor, George Hogarth.

#9. Another interesting fact about Charles Dickens is that his photo has been printed on the British £10 note.

#10. Charles Dickens comes from a poor family, but he was fortunate enough to attend school. He was obsessive and compulsive.